Rain, rain, go away

While "yesterday" was hot and humid at Disney World, "today" was our rainy day of the trip. The morning started off great — a wakeup call from Mickey and Stitch and then breakfast at the Crystal Palace with Pooh and friends. Last time we were at Disney World, Benji hugged the noses of all the characters; this time he talked to them, gave high fives, and posed for pictures with "the animals". It was more crowded than last time, so we didn't see the characters many times. But Benji was pretty happy with the visits he got. He was also very happy with his chocolate chip Mickey mouse pancake. I'm not sure which he liked more — the Mickey shape or the chocolate chips. In either case, he had a good time at our character meal.

After brunch we again headed off to Fantasyland. And Benji was upset again that the castle was closed. But I asked around and figured out when it would open for the day and we rode some rides in Fantasyland in the meantime. We rode the carousel, Dumbo, and Winnie the Pooh and saw Mickey's Philharmagic. Philharmagic was the only attraction during the entire trip that Benji actively disliked. He didn't cry or scream, but halfway through the film he asked "is it done yet?" and looked rather perturbed. We took off his 3-D glasses for the rest of the film and he was OK, but he was still happy when it was done. We think he didn't like the way things look like they're coming out at you in the film, so no more 3-D films for a while.

Then it was back to the castle to see if we could go inside. The doors were finally open so we could walk from Fantasyland through to Main Street. It really is beautiful to look all the way through the castle. On one hand Benji was happy to finally get in the castle, but on the other hand he was disappointed that there were no games or rides inside the castle. Benji's perspective on the world is so different than ours and so wonderful!

Our next stop was Toontown for a few spins on the roller coaster and a visit to Mickey's house. It was a magic moment to see his excitement at meeting Mickey. We were escorted into a room to meet the Mickey and Minnie and Benji ran towards Mickey, came back to us, and ran to Mickey's arms when we said it was OK. He hugged both Mickey and Minnie and happily posed for photos. While we were riding the roller coaster this afternoon, it began to drizzle and quickly turned to heavy rain.

We waited out some of the rain in the gift shop by the roller coaster while Benji ate a Mickey lollipop. We finally got tired of that and ran over to the train station and rode around the park a few times. We eventually got off in Frontierland for dinner at Pecos Bill's and some rides and shows over there, including Country Bear Jamboree, Aladdin's carpets, and Pirates of the Caribbean. Frontierland is a great place to watch the parades, so we saw the electrical parade and then rode the magic carpets over and over again while waiting for the fireworks. It was so empty that they didn't make us get off the ride and we rode until they shut the ride down, including one ride as the fireworks were starting. I think it spoiled Benji a bit because when we came back later in the trip he thought he would get to ride again without waiting in line. We finished off our evening by sharing a piece of fudge with three friends in the hotel room. Yummy!



One of my few "postcard" photographs. It was such a beautiful morning it's hard to believe how much it rained later in the afternoon.


Big hugs for Tigger!


Mommy gets to pose, too.


We definitely didn't get Benji to pose with the characters last time. Now, however, he is happy to pose for pictures (and he looks at them afterward on the camera screen to check himself out).








I wonder if the best part of brunch was the characters or the Mickey pancakes.


I wonder what Piglet and Benji are laughing at. Perhaps one of Benji's knock-knock jokes?


Big hugs for Pooh!





We only rode the carousel once during our trip. I guess it wasn't thrilling enough for Benji!


So cool in his 3-D glasses!


I was surprised at just how excited Benji was to meet Mickey and Minnie.





Benji has been on a lollipop kick for a while now so I brought some Dum-Dums on this trip in my purse. Somehow they just didn't cut it when he saw a 5-pack bouquet of Mickey lollipops. He asked for them in every store we went into, so during the rain we gave in and used some of his splurge money from Grandma and Grandpa on lollipops. He loved it!

Libellés : Benji, vacation

First day in the parks

After much waiting and excitement, we finally made it into the parks today. Because we had lunch reservations at Le Cellier, we started our trip and our day over at EPCOT. Benji didn't take too kindly to this as the kiddie rides are over at the Magic Kingdom. But we were able to appease him with the Nemo Ride, especially since he is so fond of the Nemo movie. Prior to lunch we rode on The Seas with Nemo and Friends and saw Turtle Talk, as well as riding Listen to the Land and Soarin'. Finding Nemo is probably Benji's favorite Disney movie, so it's no surprise he really liked the Nemo ride. Turtle Talk is very impressive, as it has an animated Crush that actually interacts with the children. Only I got to ride Soarin' on the first day since Benji is too short and we ran out of time before our lunch reservation for Matthew to ride. I really wish he had been tall enough to try it out, but I guess we need something new for next time.

For lunch we had coveted reservations at Le Cellier, the steakhouse in Canada. It's so famous for the steak that even I had the filet minon. The free dining plan was a huge reason this trip was fun for all. As I've said before, this makes it our "cruise on dry land" — tons of great food and totally self-contained.

The rest of our day was spent in the Magic Kindgom (which is also where we spent a large part of the rest of our visit). It was hot and humid, but that didn't matter to Benji. We were finally at the park for him! When we saw Cinderella's Castle down Main Street for the first time, Benji got so excited. I was actually quite surprised at how excited he got by the castle, but he had seen it before in a Sing Along Songs DVD I had gotten for him. Because of some shows on the castle stage every afternoon, the walkway was closed off. So we chose to go to Fantasyland via Tomorrowland and stopped off at Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin along the way. But Benji was completely insistent that we needed to go to the castle so we didn't go to any other rides and made a beeline for the backside of the castle. At which point he burst into tears. Here we were at the "happiest place on earth" and Benji was crying and crying about how he wanted to go into the castle. It turns out he thought there were games and rides in the castle (we think partially due to the influence of Enchanted Castle) and that we were keeping him away from them. Despite all the rides he could see, he was upset about the (nonexistent) ones he couldn't see. Seeing all this, Cinderella's Fairy Godmother came over and helped to calm Benji down. Only at the Magic Kingdom would you have a real Fairy Godmother available calm an upset kid.

He finally calmed down and realized there were tons of rides he could go on and we began exploring Fantasyland. We had the first of many rides on It's a Small World, Dumbo, Pooh, and the Teacups. Then it was time for dinner at Cosmic Ray's and some air conditioning. Refreshed, we set out again for the rides. By then it was evening so the park was much cooler and more pleasant. We headed off for Toontown where we found what would easily become Benji's favorite ride — The Barnstormer at Goofy's Wiseacre Farm (a.k.a. Goofy's Barnstormer). He loved the roller coaster. We went on it twice that evening before it was time for the fireworks, but we would return every day we were in the Magic Kingdom.

We watched the fireworks from Fantasyland instead of the more traditional in front of the castle, but I think I actually preferred this view. And as long as Mommy covered his ears, Benji enjoyed the fireworks. After the fireworks (when the park is technically closed) we saw that people were still getting on the Teacups so we hopped in line for a bonus ride before heading hope (or so we thought). They were still letting people in line when we were done, so we tried again. The third time they asked for our hotel key; it turns out it was Extra Magic Hours, which was a very pleasant surprise for us. So we took advantage of it and rode the Indy Raceway twice, the Tomorrowland Transit Authority (a.k.a. the Peoplemover), and Buzz Lightyear. Afterwards, we sat on a bench in Tomorrowland and ate some chocolate cake leftover from dinner as a nice evening treat. It was so pleasant to sit there and take in the evening atmosphere. While waiting in line for the bus, I got another pleasant surprise as we saw the Electrical Water Pageant pass by on the Seven Seas Lagoon. It's not very fancy, but it's a very old tradition at Disney World and I had never actually seen it.


An area that would become very familiar to us is the bus waiting area. Here, however, we are on our way into the park.


EPCOT focuses more on educational rides than thrill rides, including Living with the Land. Benji actually enjoyed "the farming boat ride" and we went on a few more times during the week.


On the faming boat ride, we get to see so many foods being grown, including these Mickey pumpkins. Benji was also interested in the banana trees.


The Disney Dining Plan includes dessert with every meal, which was Benji's favorite part of every meal. We had so much chocolate on this trip!


Cinderella's Fairy Godmother calms Benji down when he can't go in the castle.


Benji's first of many character pose photos during the trip.


Benji was looking forward to the Teacups for weeks before our visit. He has a Little People amusement park that includes a teacup ride and we had watched a Disneyland Sing Along Songs DVD that includes time on the Teacups, both of which got him excited for this particular ride.





The Teacup ride lived up to Benji's expectations.


Try as he might, Benji could not pull the sword out of the stone.


Despite Dumbo's long lines, Benji loved "the elephant ride".


Playing on the fence in line for the roller coaster looks like tons of fun.


Before the roller coaster, Benji doesn't know just how much fun this ride will be.


But afterward he was so happy and ready to go again. It was "so fast and fun." He told us how we "go fast and faster" with such amazing excitement.

Libellés : Benji, vacation

Getting there is half the fun

While our trip down to Florida went very well, I know that it wasn't half the fun. That would be pretty sad if our flight to Florida were half the fun of a ten day trip to Disney World, wouldn't it? Anyway, we flew out of Milwaukee and left with plenty of time to spare so we were actually able to get on the flight before our scheduled flight. It's always nice to start a vacation early and not have to spend as much time in the airport with an antsy kid. We had to split up two and one, but Benji behaved very well for Mommy. He enjoyed his airplane surprise and between that, his Fun Pad, and candy the flight went pretty quickly. The descent was a bit troublesome but he was happier after Mommy covered his ears.

The whole day he kept wanting to know if we were in Disney World yet and if we could go on rides. Unfortunately, we had no plans to go into the parks that day so we basically kept stalling. We played Twister in the courtyard of the hotel and checked out the giant stuff in the architecture of the Pop Century resort. We also went to Downtown Disney for dinner, where they have a small carousel. We paid our $2 and placated him with a ride, but of course he knew that wasn't the bid deal of Disney World. That evening he wanted to get in the car and drive home, so it was a bit tough to convince him to go back to the hotel (for all the following days he was quite content to go back to the hotel once he figured out how much fun this place was). In any case, the excitement was mounting and none of us could wait until the next day when we would really see Disney World.

Libellés : Benji, vacation

Done with the Terrible Twos

Can you believe it? Three years ago we had a beautiful little baby and now we have a three-year-old! I guess that means we're done with the Terrible Twos, but I really don't think they were all that terrible. To mark the occasion, we were happy to have both sets of grandparents join us and Benji was very excited to have "seven friends" over at his house to play (he calls all family members "friends" and he counts himself among his friend count). I tossed around ideas for exciting events for his birthday, but finally decided that (1) I couldn't possibly top Disney World, and (2) Benji really loves spending time at the house playing with his toys and his special people. So I finally decided that his birthday party would would be very simple, but just perfect for him.

After lunch he looked around the table at everyone's feet and declared that we all had socks on so we should go in the basement and play games (the house rule is that you need socks to go in the basement — it's kind of chilly down there). And that's exactly what we did. We played board games in the basement, opened presents, played more games (with his new presents), ate cake, and played games some more. From how happy Benji looked, I think it was the perfect birthday party for him. He was surrounded by the people he loves and that's clearly very important to him.



One of Benji's favorite books for bedtime stories is "The Secret Birthday Message" by Eric Carle, in which the little boy follows a scavenger hunt for his birthday present. So Mommy made a Secret Birthday Message just for Benji and hid it in his room the night before his birthday. We went on our little hunt first thing in the morning.


In the book, the present is a puppy, but in our version the present is a fish. When he saw the fish tank, he burst into tears. It turns out he thought that by getting the fish he wouldn't get a cake or candles. The poor little guy thought it was an either/or situation and the cake and candles were far more important than the presents.


So we had to think quickly and took Benji downstairs for some "breakfast cake" and put candles in his cinnamon roll and sang Happy Birthday. All was better.


At lunch we had a gourmet meal of macaroni and cheese, which was perfect for our guest of honor. He was very funny putting macaroni shells on each finger and eating them off his fingers.


You can't have a birthday without balloons!


And of course presents.


When he opened various presents, he wanted to stop all further present opening and immediately play with his new toys. This was especially true with new games as he is completely obsessed with board games (he even loves more adult games like Scrabble, Mastermind, Twister, and Blokus in addition to the traditional Candy Land and Cootie).


Who doesn't love a present that's almost as big as you are? Inside was a great car transport semi-truck from Grandpa and Grandma.


In a similar vein to the typical first Christmas where the kid likes the wrapping paper or the boxes more than the presents, Benji's favorite birthday present was also the cheapest — Travel Perfection. It's a great team game with Benji and one other person and he kept asking over and over to play it.


Of course we had to play a family game of Hungry Hungry Hippos.


The cake, candles, and singing is a very important part of the birthday ritual in Benji's mind. When we asked him how old he was in the morning he still answered "two" but after we had cake, his answer turned over to "three". Clearly the cake marks the birthday in his mind.


After the singing and blowing out the candles, Benji enjoyed playing with the singing cake man (also known as a Target gift card).


There's one happy birthday boy!

Libellés : Benji